Filipino meteorologists have also predicted “stronger and more destructive typhoons” due to climate change.
This is bad news for the country’s 47,000 state schools. As well as potential damage to physical structures, there is a fear that extreme weather will deepen educational inequalities because when children are sent home and forced to rely on online learning, the least well-off suffer the most.
“It’s hard every time classes are suspended due to disasters, and we could understand the lessons properly at home,” said 15-year-old Prince Rivera, who goes to Bulihan National High School in Bulacan province, near the capital Manila.
His school has been flooded several times and he was also sent home during the recent heatwave. Xerxes de Castro, basic education adviser at Save the Children Philippines, said awareness of climate risks is the first step to making schools resilient to future disasters.
“I think it’s just right now that schools, learners, and all the stakeholders are learning about the impacts of climate change. It’s a hard lesson,” de Castro told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The Philippines, which topped the World Risk Index in 2022 and 2023 as the most disaster-prone country in the world, is hit by typhoons about 20 times a year.
According to the World Bank, around 78 per cent of public schools and 96 per cent of students in the Philippines are exposed to multiple hazards. Between 2021 and 2023, around 4,000 schools were damaged due to various disasters, resulting in the disruption of learning for two million children.
